Gerrymandering and Redistricting Reform

The congressional and state legislative maps are redrawn every ten years to reflect population changes revealed in the US Census. As the state population changes, some districts gain residents while others lose them. The maps are redrawn to balance the population in each district. The next redistricting will occur in 2021. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of these political district boundaries to favor one party, race, or group over another. Indiana’s redistricting process gives the Indiana General Assembly the power to draw the district lines. In other words, the legislators are picking which voters live in their districts and which don’t—and they are using increasingly sophisticated data and computer software to draw the maps. Instead of voters picking their legislators, legislators are picking their voters. I support redistricting reform with an Independent Redistricting Commission to draw Indiana’s Congressional and state legislative maps through a fair and open process. The goal is compact, sensible districts in which cities and counties, as much as possible, are not split into different districts.